The Raid Director has Dropped Out of the Deathstroke Movie

Before Justice League grinded the DCEU into a halt, there were rumors going around about a Deathstroke movie and how The Raid director Gareth Evans was attached to helm the project. As it turns out, he's dropped out of the film, and never really got that far into production.

Talking to ComicBook, Evans explains:

"I had a phone call which I think was publicized a bit, about Deathstroke with DC. We talked about that before, we had a few conversations. One of the guys at DC and at Warner Brothers, one with Joe [Manganiello], who has been on the character for some time now, who is super passionate about that character, by the way. I've never met anyone who knows more about their character.

"I was feeling my way around it and did a bit of research and read a couple of those comic books. I started to dig in to the origin stories. I like to figure out what the origin of a character is and what shapes them, what paints them as a personality. There's been a few iterations, actually, of his origin, which is interesting to see. There was the original way his character was created and then there's been a few creative licenses taken in terms of how he lost his eye, for example, and stuff like that. So, it was an interesting sort of experience.

It was said that Deathstroke was supposed to be the main villain of the Batman solo movie starring Ben Affleck, but after whole shift of directors and a change of plans, Matt Reeves was assigned to the helm, and he decided to come up with a story that may/may not involve Deathstroke at all.

Evans continues:

"Nothing really went beyond those conversations. I haven't heard anything for a really long time. To be honest, every time I see an article written I keep wanting to ask, 'Okay, what is it you guys know that I don't know?' Because I haven't heard anything for a good while yet. So I don't know if that will ever come back full circle at some point. But I know I haven't had any conversation about that project for a long time now."

By the looks of it, the DCEU has decided to put the Deathstroke movie in the backburner as they focus on characters that could get more attention. For next year, we have films like Shazam!, Joker, and Wonder Woman 1984, and 2020 will see the release of Birds of Prey. Though they haven't been given release dates yet, there are also films like Supergirl, Batgirl, Black Adam, Nightwing, and Green Lantern Corps in the works. I guess Deathstroke will just have to wait for his time to shine. Maybe a cameo in the next Batman film might boost interest.

No release date has been announced for the Deathstroke movie.

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